Caustic Window, then. I knew some of the Joyrex stuff way back when but most of what I’d heard was mislabelled mp3s from the usual haunts of AudioGalaxy and Soulseek in the early 2000s so I didn’t really know it was all attributed to a different pseudonym, it was all just Aphex Twin to me.
I’d been searching for a physical copy of Compilation for quite some time and managed to get a CD of it from eBay for probably way under market value during Lockdown. Despite all that searching and time, it’s not a CD I play much for some reason. Listening to it this week, I genuinely couldn’t tell you why that is; it’s certainly a more enjoyable listen than Classics - it actually relents, and several times, with some of Richard’s most beautiful and accessible work at that. Joyrex J4 and AFX 114 (Phlange Phace 2.0) are savage openers to be sure, but Cordialatron is blissful and would absolutely sit alongside nearly anything off SAW 85-92 (especially if you dumped some reverb on that kick…). Italic Eyeball is a little different; drum pattern wise it’s still very much got that SAW 85-92 hallmark but it’s a bit airier, more sparse even - said pattern and bass line barely change through the duration. Incredibly low-key for just about anything Richard’s put out, with its vaguely Arabian motif and witchy backwards (nunny forwards?) sample. Then of course there’s Pigeon Street. Probably the most un-Aphex 23 seconds in his entire output, which of course just makes it even more Aphex. I wish Popcorn was here, but for whatever reason it got left off the CD (rights issues? Unlikely in 1998), even though there was plenty of space for it.
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of several posters above in that there’s a real sense of proto-Drukqs experimentalism going on here. Yeah, it’s a compilation of EPs and therefore lacks the sequencing decisions a proper album involves, but its tonal variety and disregard for cohesion or flow very much fits with Drukqs’ more wilfull oddity. If anything it comes across like a demo dump.
Not much to say about Astroblaster, it’s a pounding throw-away with some nice micro patterns and dissonance. On The Romance Tip is way better, loads of textural drum changes and reverb tricks - could almost be a SAW 85-92 contender but if anything feels maybe like something written after; it has an unfinished complexity to it that looks beyond. Joyrex J5 clatters about a bit, I like it a bit more than J4 but they’re the least interesting things on here if I’m being honest.
Fantasia, though. What the fuck. Total Acid meltdown that’s set off all the alarms and clearly caused some sort of crisis in our poor sampled lass. It seems… a lot… but when I think back on the porn samples I’ve heard used in music over the years, this comes across as pretty tame, all things considered. It might even be, dare I say it - Richard trying to be sexy, to a given degree. Just… sexy in his way. Which includes forcibly removing your face with a TB-303 that’s been fucked through a wall. The acid continues, but in a much more sedate and reasonable fashion with Humanoid Must Not Escape. These two tracks have been swapped round from their original EP sequencing iirc. The squelchies make the title sample sound like “Humanoid Must Masturbate” sometimes. Probably on purpose that, and not just my brain. Probably.
Clayhill Dub is a bit damp and squishy and half-hearted, dub is not outwardly Richard’s thing. It doesn’t feel like a pastiche so its inclusion is pretty odd, but that’s the experimental nature of this compilation for you. The Garden Of Linmiri is back to business though. The business being Techno for Unhappy Reactors, and apparently, tyre commercials. We Are The Music Makers (Hardcore Mix) continues the theme and bears very little resemblance to the beloved SAW 85-92 track. I don’t belove it. There’s a weird sort of snoring sound that comes in toward the end that exemplifies how I feel.
I reckon some of the chaff could be removed from both this and Classics and a very, very strong album would be the result if what was left was pushed together.
As such, it’s a 7 from me. There’s lots to love here, but there’s too much that’s either done better elsewhere or an experiment that had no where else to go.
but yeah, 45 mins of the best stuff of the two would rule